Thursday, October 09, 2008

Largest Re-Enlistment Photos

Friend sent these to me and I guess the MSM somehow failed to pick up on these. I like how we get treated to pictures of massive military parades in China and North Korea or thousands of terrorists chanting, "Death to America" but we never really see anything that would instill hope or patriotism in America. Then again, this could be why the old media is dying and seeing their subscribership tank;





The beauty of it is, it's in Al Faw Palace in Baghdad. I like the big US flag there.

9 comments:

Ed Kohler said...

As I understand it, troops who don't reenlist could be called up at any time and assigned to just about anything while troops that do reenlist will stay with their soldiers.

And there are plenty of bonuses for reenlisting today.

Stick & Carrot.

It's voluntary but more mercenary than patriotic.

Captain Capitalism said...

Jesus, Ed,

Can you just let go of the cynicism for once and maybe enjoy the occasional warm patriotic fuzzy?

You need to come drinking with me and the rest of the right wingers. We'll find you a girl.

Ed Kohler said...

Captain, I'm just following the money.

Hot Sam said...
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Ed Kohler said...

Robert, if it was all about loving their mission, why were stop loss measures used? Bonuses increased?

I'm living in the reality based community here. And my understanding comes from friends who have served or are serving now.

It doesn't sound like you disagree with my statements but have a different take on things. If it makes you feel better to believe that soldiers are being patriotic when they reenlist to avoid lesser duty with troops they haven't trained with while receiving generous signing bonuses, good for you.

Hot Sam said...
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Ed Kohler said...

Robert, that is a term soldiers I know, who are very proud of the country they serve, have used to describe their conditions and motivations.

While you seem to take offense at the term, others don't. They made rational financial decisions to join in order to pay for college, and rational financial decisions to reenlist.

It's naive to believe that everyone fighting in the US military is their for patriotic reasons. Any reasonable person knows that people join for many other reasons as well, such as to avoid jail time or for financial benefits.

I'm not dismissing patriotism, but simply pointing out that there are other motivators at play here that make it hard for me to get choked up over seeing mass reenlistments.

Hot Sam said...
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Ed Kohler said...

Robert, I hope you have the maturity to understand that I'm not questioning your patriotism when I point out that some soldiers are motivated to join the military for reasons other than the ones you hold dear.